"I took a couple days off" this weekend and jumped on a plane to Omaha to try something different. I did something I said I'd never do. Well, sorta. For as long as I can remember or at least since I've had my own photography business, I've refused to agree to any question that had the words "wedding" and "photograph" in it. I'm still not sold on the idea, but I figured if I was ever gonna try it out, I wanted to learn from some of the best. Enter Melissa Jill, stage left. Melissa's a rock star wedding photographer from Phoenix, Arizona, and I found her blog a while back from somebody else's blog who was singing her praises. We've traded a few blog comments for a while, and when I asked her a while back if she had any 2nd shooter opportunities I could tag along for, she graciously offered up a wedding she was shooting in Omaha this past weekend. So, off I went to soak up her whole wedding shooting process and see how I liked it. The biggest thing I learned this weekend is that I'm not in wedding shooting shape. I was flat. Worn. Out. For anyone laughing out there, I dare say you are - like I was - naive. Going into it I thought, "Okay, no big deal. I chase kids around and do a fair amount of portrait work, how hard and different can it be?" Umm.... yeaaahhhh.... I have a whole new respect for wedding photographers. Not that I didn't before. I mean, I knew it was a lot work, but it's enough to make Richard Simmons breath heavy. Hmm... no innuendo intended there. Melissa was - as expected - a pro. Calm, somewhat cool (it was sunny, mid 80's and humid after all) and collected through the whole day. Julie Morris was also there 2nd shooting, and lemme tell ya, she put me to shame. Not only was she there shooting with us for 10 hours on Friday ending around 11pm, she had to shoot another wedding Saturday, too, where she had to start at 8:30 am and go until late that night. My tip my comparatively lightweight hat to both of you ladies. It was awesome meeting both of you, and thanks for bringing me along for the ride. I'll post a few images from the wedding shoot in a future post, but in the meantime, here's a few images I grabbed Saturday morning before heading back to the airport.

I love the blatancy of this sign. "Hey, there's fun stuff happening here." Unfortunately, the fun did stop here for me... the last time I saw my newly purchased Ray Ban sunglasses was on my head before I took this image. I took them off to be able to see through the viewfinder on my camera, and, well, apparently they went somewhere else to have their own fun. This is exactly why I don't buy myself expensive sun glasses. I convinced myself things would be different this time. Yeah... oops.